Oldest mammalian hair found in France

London, May 20 (ANI): The oldest sample of mammalian hair has been found in a 100 million-year-old lump of amber.

The scales on the hair are similar to those found on the hairs of today's mammals.

This may signify that the structure of mammalian hair has not changed for much of our evolution, according to Romain Vullo at the University of Rennes I in France, who discovered the hair.

"Perhaps mammalian hair does its job so well that it does not need to evolve," New Scientist quoted him, as saying.

Vullo came across the amber-encased hair in the Font-de-Benon quarry in Charente-Maritime, southwestern France.

The site was a lush tropical forest around 100 million years ago.

The hair may have belonged to a small opossum-like animal.

Four teeth discovered in the same quarry suggest the animal may have been Arcantiodelphys marchandi, one of the oldest known marsupials. (ANI)